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  #21  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2005, 5:11 PM
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^It's such a tasteless sign, 2taall. They didn't put something positive like "Respect Life" or something like that. Instead they had to put an obnoxious "Abortion Kills Babies" sign where everyone passing by can see it. I hate those anti-abortion fanatics.
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  #22  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2005, 6:42 PM
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Let's get back to the focus of the thread.
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  #23  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2005, 7:47 PM
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one thing i don't like about the Fleurs-de-Lis project is the sizable surface lot they have adjacent. It's a great project other than that.
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  #24  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2005, 8:34 PM
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According to the Mayor Slay blog there will be underground parking.
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  #25  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2005, 1:57 AM
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well, i don't doubt the residential portion is getting underground parking, but it looks like the commercial portion required that surface parking..... in the picture, adjacent to the southwest......
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  #26  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2005, 12:50 PM
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MOst of the new infill developments suck. Why are we still stuck on building historic replicas? They just end up looking cheap. It's time for some contemporary designs. We could take a few lessons from Cleveland.
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  #27  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2005, 3:07 PM
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Why are we still stuck on building historic replicas? They just end up looking cheap.
I completely agree Stlgasm. This is how I feel personally for Busch Stadium. Sure, Riverfront Stadium and Busch Stadium were cookie cutter designs, but Busch Stadium is one of the few that is still standing with this design, plus, it has a lot of history. As a baseball fan, I am a little bothered with the idea of "trying" to make it look old. This only makes it look cheap, in my opinion.


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  #28  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2005, 8:47 PM
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Yeah, I agree Gasm , but to balance out the bad with the good... How about that Park East Tower? 4 possible high rises for the Central West End? It gives me goosebumps.

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  #29  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2005, 12:58 AM
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Don't forget the New Mississppi River Bridge and the new Grand Ave Bridge.
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  #30  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2005, 3:00 PM
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Quote by DeBaliviere
The anti-abortion sign sits in a church parking lot - free advertising for their cause.


SO?
A little snippy, eh? Someone asked why there is an anti-abortion sign next to a loft development, and I explained why.
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  #31  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2005, 7:15 PM
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Unfortunately, I do not have any renderings, but a main development for the new Busch Stadium area is the Ballpark Village. There is vague information available at the Cardinals website under the 'New Ballpark" section (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/NAS...=.jsp&c_id=stl), but does anyone know if anything significant has happened since the developer was named? The rumors/plans that I have heard/read include a 3 phase program that will begin with office space and residential units (apts and condos) with first floor retail/restaurant. Subsequent phases have not been described, but a main feature that is continually thrown around is the idea of an aquarium. Too bad they couldn't utilize the old Arena for that end, as was proposed, and keep those hideous Highland condos from being built.

Also, the remaining three Cupples Station warehouses were recently purchased and should be set for renovation within 6-12 months from now. Not to mention the "under construction" Cupples Station (#6?) at 11th and Clark.

And in my opinion, one of the best things the city has invested their money in is a repainting of all of the elevated sections of I-64/Hwy 40. While I would not have picked the brown color they are now, it is a hell of a lot better than the rusted '60s green that it has been for so long.

In response to many, I feel that the new Busch stadium is very dramatic now that the first phase is nearing exterior completion and certainly does not look cheap. Maybe contrived, but not cheap. Even though it attempts to be retro (quite the rage in new stadium design), it fits in very well with the urban fabric, espcially the aforementioned Cupples Station warehouses. With that said, I do agree that it is time for some transitional architecture to emerge. There are many opportunities for that to happen, especially with Libeskind designing the new Bottleworks condos. New, crisp somewhat modern designs might help accentuate and also set apart the derth of soon to be developed historic buildings in the cities downtown and now midtown areas. Of course, too modern and the suburbanites will avoid the city even more and have something new to bitch about with regards to downtown STL.

Oh, and I love the Park East Tower...wish I could afford to live in that one...although it is nearing 80% sold. You should check out the views that they give for some of the higher floors...they are quite impressive. www.parkeasttower.com (in case it hasn't been listed before)
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  #32  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2005, 11:57 PM
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I'm telling you, A Sea World Aquarium would make sense, being that Busch owns Sea World Theme Parks.
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  #33  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2005, 12:10 AM
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I know Cordish wants to build between 500 and 1,000 residential units for Ballpark Village.
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  #34  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 5:11 AM
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Interior renderings For The Park East Tower

Link
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  #35  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 5:22 AM
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yow, lots going on in STL. nice
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  #36  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 7:39 PM
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Aldermen, developers request TIF for three new East Loop projects
By Tim Woodcock
Posted Wednesday, August 17, 2005

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Lyda Krewson is heading up an effort to establish a multi-million dollar tax increment financing district for the eastern portion of the Delmar Loop. Krewson, 28th Ward Alderman, said the funding is necessary for three major projects that will help revive the area.

Part of the proposed TIF district is also in Frank Williamson’s 26th Ward.

The projects that would fall under the proposed TIF plan include a 120-room hotel, a small shopping center that may include restaurants and new-build condos.

Neal Shapiro, owner of The Original Cast Lighting at 6120 Delmar Blvd., bought the vacant buildings directly across the street from his business about 18 months ago. The buildings were last used by Yellow Cab Company. He plans to demolish them and replace them with a 33,600-square-foot retail center that he wants to fill with small and medium-sized businesses.

He and his son, Josh, working under the name Metroscapes, have been working on plans since the land changed hands and they now have architectural drawings showing a brick two-story building with metalwork archways and balconies on the second floor. The Lawrence Group drew up the plans, and it would be a $7 million project, Neal Shapiro said. The project would eliminate an “eyesore” and complete that block of Delmar, he said.

It would be a “very historical looking building” that will be compatible with the neighborhood, said Josh Shapiro, project manager.

Pace Properties has been hired to scout for tenants. The company is looking for several smaller tenants rather than one big one, Josh Shapiro said. There would be 65 parking spots available behind the building, he said.

Bundling the three projects together makes sense because the projects will feed off each other, Joe Edwards said. Edwards said he is particularly keen on the Shapiros’ proposed retail center. “I’m really excited by that even though it’s not my project,” he said.
“The area could use some more diverse restaurants,” Shapiro said, citing Mexican and Italian as obvious omissions in the mix of the cuisines offered in the Loop.

Joe Edwards, who owns a number of properties along Delmar east of Skinker Boulevard and whose Pageant music venue opened in 2000 and was the first major investment in the area in decades, has said he feels the area is saturated with restaurants and doesn’t need any more for the moment.

The building would also have second-floor offices that the company is hoping will be filled up by “creative types.” The Shapiros have developed space further east of Delmar and one of those offices was taken by a web development firm. “These people are very interested in this area,” Neal Shapiro said.

“If we get the TIF, then it’s a project,” Josh Shapiro said.

Krewson said she is having preliminary meetings with the city’s TIF Commission, which has the power to approve a plan — specifically dollar amounts and other terms — and then forward it to the Board of Aldermen to sign off on. A formal presentation could be made to the TIF Commission as early as Aug. 24. For the moment, Krewson said, she doesn’t want to talk exact dollar amounts.

TIFs are sometimes described as tax-linked loans. A portion of taxes generated by a new development — in this case three separate developments — is put into a special fund used to pay back TIF bonds issued at the start of the project. TIF bonds can only be used for infrastructure improvements and they typically cover 10 to 20 percent of a project’s total cost. Technically TIFs are loans rather than direct subsidies but they do reduce the amount of tax revenue going toward the city’s general fund and its school district.

Although what is proposed is a district TIF like the one in place in Grand Center, this one will have a “very different structure,” Krewson said.

That project has been hobbled by a lawsuit claiming that, as a religious institution, St. Louis University should not receive public funds, and in making this claim the lawsuit has halted other developments in the district unrelated to the university. Initially the idea of a TIF district was sold as being one that would create synergy between various elements and allow a greater flexibility in terms of the order in which sites are developed.

Krewson said she has studied different options for TIFs in great detail and feels that a structure that links the projects together is the best choice.

Edwards said he is hoping the TIF will allow him to put in a hotel at 6177 Delmar Blvd., the site of Ronald Jones’ funeral home.

“It is difficult to get financing for a hotel to start with,” but the TIF will help bridge that gap, he said. It would be a $15 million project — “that’s the closest estimate at this moment,” Edwards said — but many components still need to fall into place and that figure may go up or down.

Edwards said it would be a “sleek-looking” 10-story hotel designed by Kiku Obata & Co., the company responsible for the look of The Pageant and Regional Arts Commission’s new offices. In both look and function it would comple-ment The Pageant and Pin-Up Bowl, properties he owns on either side, Edwards said.

The historic funeral home building would not be torn down but built around, with additions above and behind the funeral home, Edwards said. Plans have not progressed much beyond the conceptual stage, he said.

Edwards said he has always thought the Loop needed a boutique hotel — “something unique to the Loop” — and he had a hotel in mind when he first bought the property. Edwards said he was open minded about other uses, but after investigation it became clear that it would be “almost impossible to adapt it for something else,” he said.

Those most likely to stay at the hotel and be particularly attracted by its location would be people coming from out of town for a concert at The Pageant and visitors to Washington University, he said.

Like the Shapiros, he said, “Without the TIF, it would not be possible.”
Bundling the three projects together makes sense because the projects will feed off each other, he said. Edwards said he is particularly keen on the Shapiros’ proposed retail center. “I’m really excited by that even though it’s not my project,” he said.

Two blocks farther east, at 5819 Delmar Blvd., Saaman Development is proposing building a 36-unit condo on land it owns. Currently the north side of that block houses a car wash and a vacant strip mall, just west of Saaman’s site. Along this section of Delmar much of the south side of the street is taken up by buildings owned by transit agency Metro.

The condos would be aimed at young professionals rather than empty nesters, said Mark Rubin, president of the company. Prices for the units in this project have not been calculated, but at Westgate and Vernon avenues in University City, another marginal area that has improved recently, the company is preparing to break ground; those units will sell for between $199,000 and $250,000.

Although not an established market as far as condos are concerned, areas immediately to the north have seen significant investment recently, and it is the kind of area that should be next in line for a renaissance after the Loop and the Central West End, Rubin said.

This project is further behind the other two and a tentative groundbreaking date would be late 2006, Rubin said.

The company could build without a TIF subsidy, but it would mean cheaper products and having to sell each unit at a higher price, he said. The district TIF makes sense because it allows the area to be developed “holistically rather than piece by piece,” he said.

There would be a small amount of streetscape improvements as part of the project, mainly lighting and landscaping in front of the new building, he said.

No total dollar amount for the project is available yet, he said.

Source
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  #37  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 7:57 PM
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Why build a "historical looking building" rather than a cool, modern looking building? Delmar has tons of historical looking buildings, but very few contemporary ones. The mentality that "urban = old" is 10 years behind the times. Joe Edwards gets it, I'm not sure that the Shapiros do. Although I do applaud their investments in the district. Honestly, though, the Loop needs more restaurants like a hole in the head. How about a good convenience store!
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  #38  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 8:10 PM
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I am really excited about the condos east of the station and looking forward to seeing that area move forward. I am glad they are building on the old cab location, but I can understand what you mean about "historical". Yet, I am glad they are investing in the neighborhood.
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  #39  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2005, 9:26 PM
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it's about linkage. continue building eastward and soon you will connect with the CWE, along with a trolley system, I can't wait to see the loop...say within 5 to 7 years!
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  #40  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2005, 5:12 AM
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Condos are key to revival of South Side Bank building
By Charlene Prost
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/18/2005


Front side of the South Side National Bank facing Gravois

The limestone, Art Deco landmark also could feature ground-level stores and a restaurant in the two-story banking hall.

After surviving a demolition threat and years of controversy about its fate, the South Side National Bank building is making a comeback. But don't expect to find bank tellers and deposit slips there anymore.

What's coming inside the limestone, Art Deco building are 13 condominiums in the slender seven-story tower. And in the two-level base beneath: ground-floor retail stores, and perhaps a restaurant in the ornate, two-story banking hall on the second floor.

Developer Arjomand Kalayeh and the Lawrence Group plan to spend about $8 million to revive the landmark, built in 1928. But they're not stopping there.

Stephen Smith, president at Lawrence Group, said his firm and Kalayeh recently acquired an empty, deteriorated three-story building across the street with a rare, interior shopping arcade. They also have a contract to buy vacant land just west of the former bank.

Smith said they'll put apartments above retail in the arcade building and decide later what to do with the land.

"This will reinforce what we are doing at South Side Bank," Smith said. "We want to upgrade the whole environment at that intersection (of South Grand Boulevard and Gravois Avenue), and doing one building alone won't do it."

The fate of the bank building, a longtime anchor for the neighborhood, became uncertain six years ago when South Side officials announced a deal to replace it with a Walgreens drug store and build a smaller, more modern bank.

Preservationists and neighborhood leaders rallied to save the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "one of St. Louis' best examples" of Art Deco architecture.

In 2001, South Side merged with the former Allegiant Bancorp, and Allegiant inherited the building. Allegiant - now merged into National City Corp. - later donated it to the Grand Oak Hill Community Corp.

After at least one other revival plan failed, the neighborhood group handed it over to the current owners after they paid off about $60,000 in back taxes.

Smith said construction will begin later this year, and the project should be finished by the end of next year.

The plan is to put two condos on each floor, except the top floor, which will have a penthouse. Prices will range from about $150,000 to $200,000 for 1,100-square-foot units. There's no price yet for the penthouse.

Views from the tower, much of it rented by the bank as office space over the years, will be one of the condo features.

"The building is on a high point, so from the upper floors you can see downtown, the Arch, office buildings in Clayton and, on a clear day, you can see the (Jefferson Barracks) Bridge," Smith said.

The most ornate area in the building is the banking hall, which still has the original teller windows, light fixtures, mezzanine level and a coffered ceiling with decorative plasterwork and beams 25 feet above the stone floor.

It's also on the second floor of the building, with stairs leading to it, an arrangement that might seem unusual today. But not when the building was designed, said Alderman Jennifer Florida, D-Ward 15, who worked for years to help save it.

"It was designed with steep steps to get to the lobby to discourage bank robbers," she said.

David Dwars, project architect at the Lawrence Group, said nearly all the original architectural and banking features in the hall remain and will be preserved, including a round, steel-and-brass bank vault door.

"If it becomes a restaurant, as we hope," he said, "we would create seating up against the teller windows and probably use the bank vault as a wine cellar."

Dwars said lobby areas on the first floor also will be restored. Drop ceilings were installed there, hiding original decorative plaster ceilings, and vinyl flooring covers parts of the original stone floor.

"We'll take out the drop ceilings and restore the plasterwork ... and we hope to be able to pull up the vinyl and restore the floor," Dwars said.

Smith said financing for the project will include a loan from Missouri State Bank, $1.4 million in city tax increment financing, and state and federal historic tax credits.

One reason for taking the project on, he said, is to try to expand on other redevelopment activity along South Grand Boulevard.

"At the bank building, you are only a mile (south) of Tower Grove Park, and eight blocks or so from the South Grand neighborhood," Smith said.


Reporter Charlene Prost
E-mail: cprost@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8140
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